For the last 10 days I have been the Coordinator at the early voting and Election Day at PS 217. Yesterday 1240 islanders came out to vote. We have a great community and the over 2000 islanders that voted in the last 10 days make me proud of our community. Also my great time of workers for voting, 25 dedicated workers who work long and sometimes stressful hours. Thanks to everyone who preserved our democracy!!! Judy Berdy
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Sources
Judith Berdy
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Hiding between Shake Shack and Eataly just outside Madison Square Park is one of only two military grave sites in the city.
It contains the remains of William Jenkins Worth.
A celebrated general, Worth’s military career started with the War of 1812 and was cut short after the Mexican-American War, when he contracted cholera in San Antonio in 1849.
After his death, city leaders decided to honor him with a memorial in what was then an elite residential neighborhood.
While his body was temporarily interred in Green-Wood Cemetery, a 51-foot granite obelisk went up, listing names of crucial battle sites of his career.
A bronze relief of Worth on a horse fronts the obelisk, and military regalia decorate the cast-iron fence surrounding it.
It’s a grand monument—but it’s easy to miss as you cross that tricky intersection of 25th Street, Broadway, and Fifth Avenue (a pocket park called Worth Square).
Where’s the other military gravesite in Manhattan? Grant’s Tomb, 100 blocks northwest. General Worth is also the namesake of Worth Street, and we have him to thank for Fort Worth, Texas, and Lake Worth, Florida.
RIHS Lecture: Benedict Arnold: Hero Betrayed Date and Time Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 6:30 – 7:30 PM Location Online via Zoom Roosevelt Island Library
Before he was a turncoat, he was an American hero. James K. Martin, Professor Emeritus at the University of Houston and author of Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered, reveals the strategic genius of Arnold, his essential contributions to the Revolutionary War, and his mistreatment at the hands of his superiors.
ABOUT JAMES KIRBY MARTIN As for me: Might say that I’ve had a long academic career, teaching almost 50 years at Rutgers in NJ and the Un. of Houston. Also held distinguished visiting appointments at The Citadel in SC and the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. Have published several books, including Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero, on which the film is based. Also served as an executive producer of the film, which is available on Amazon Prime and other streaming networks. My most recent book is a novel, titled Surviving Dresden: A Story of Life, Death, and Redemption in World War II. Many other writing projects are underway. And I serve on the boards of trustees of the Fort Ticonderoga Association on Lake Champlain and the Fort Plain in the Mohawk Valley, and also serve as an historian adviser to the Oneida Indian Nation of NY. That should be plenty and please feel free to reduce this information if you like.
From Jay Jacobson: While a bikeway to circumnavigate Manhattan island is a splendid idea, the incredible cost per foot of bikeway is an outrageous, insensitive, extravagance. The logic of ultimately providing paved surfaces over virtually all of the East River will be the ruin of the City of New York. I lament this wasteful extravagance, as much as I admire its imagination.
From: Judy Berdy For the last 9 days I have been at Early Voting as PS 217. 997 voters took advantage of the fast, easy and efficient way to vote. If you missed that opportunity, we are at PS 217 today until 9 p.m. for you to vote!! See you there!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Sources
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
FUNDING PROVIDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS OF THE NYC CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Before he was a turncoat, he was an American hero. James K. Martin, Professor Emeritus at the University of Houston and author of Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered, reveals the strategic genius of Arnold, his essential contributions to the Revolutionary War, and his mistreatment at the hands of his superiors.
ABOUT JAMES KIRBY MARTIN
As for me: Might say that I’ve had a long academic career, teaching almost 50 years at Rutgers in NJ and the Un. of Houston. Also held distinguished visiting appointments at The Citadel in SC and the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. Have published several books, including Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero, on which the film is based. Also served as an executive producer of the film, which is available on Amazon Prime and other streaming networks. My most recent book is a novel, titled Surviving Dresden: A Story of Life, Death, and Redemption in World War II. Many other writing projects are underway. And I serve on the boards of trustees of the Fort Ticonderoga Association on Lake Champlain and the Fort Plain in the Mohawk Valley, and also serve as an historian adviser to the Oneida Indian Nation of NY.
ED LITCHER, JAY JACOBSON, HARA REISER ALL GOT IT RIGHT.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
JAMES KIRBY MARTIN
Illustration: “The Hudson at Tappan Zee” by Francis Silva 1876 showing a sloop, but actually depicting Esopus Meadows.
CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE JULE MENIN DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
In 1992, the shipyard at Rochefort France where the Hermione – the ship that brought Lafayette to America – had been constructed in 1780 was apparently in decline.
Several local entrepreneurs conceived of the idea that a replica of the Hermione should be built and sailed to the United States as a goodwill gesture. It was hoped that the project would perhaps improve the local economy and also remind Americans of the important historical ties between the United States and France.
A visionary project of this magnitude would seem an almost impossible undertaking. The cost would exceed $22 million. Among other technical challenges was the fact that there were no existing plans for the original Hermione. There were however, for an English ship of the same class which had been constructed at the same time.
Beginning in the early 1990s work was begun in Rochefort with the backing of the French government, local French citizens and major French corporations. The hope was undoubtedly that American cities and citizens would support this endeavor and might even help financially. After all, the French-designed Statue of Liberty, among the most successful public monuments in history and an archetypal symbol of the United States, had been jointly funded by American and French contributions.
In 2014 the ship was completed and ready to sail across the Atlantic to 11 ports on the eastern seaboard, including stops at various maritime museums. One of the most important stops would be New York Harbor on July 4th where it would sail by the Statue of Liberty.
The project received favorable response from officials in Baltimore and Philadelphia and other seaport cities. In New York however, the project’s representatives had difficulty obtaining an audience with representatives of the mayor or governor to discuss the project. As the time for the Hermione’s arrival approached it appeared that prospects for a proper reception in New York were dim.
Several weeks before July 4th however, members of the Bowling Green Association and the Lower Manhattan Historical Association began pestering relevant City officials. Finally, with the backing of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, arrangements were made to dock the Hermione at South Street Seaport’s Pier 16. (The City had planned to dock Hermione at an obscure pier in Brooklyn.)
At the opening ceremony, Miles Young, the British-born head of the American Friends of the Hermione (who was then chair of the advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather), hailed the achievement of having the Hermione come to New York and America. He called the project one of the great public history projects of the 20th century and an example of the Lafayette family motto “why not.”
Although the highest city or state official at the ceremony was the mayor’s Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, speakers did include Jonathan Bouleware, the recently installed President of the South Street Seaport Museum, and Craig Stapleton, a prominent past U.S. Ambassador to France. A representative of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association gifted the captain of the Hermione a 13-star American flag. The flag was an replica of the one that had been carried by Thomas Paine and John Paul Jones and presented to the Marquis de Lafayette at the Fête de la Fédération in 1790.
The following day, another ceremony was held in front of Pier 16 in which the Lower Manhattan Historical Association held a march in honor of the Hermione from Pier 16 to Bowling Green where the flag was raised on the Evacuation Day flagpole. The march is believed to have been the first July 4th parade in Lower Manhattan since the American Bicentennial in 1976. It proved a success, and laid the groundwork for the seven subsequent, and much larger, July 4th parades.
Jonathan Bouleware, the newly installed President of the South Street Seaport Museum, gave a stirring speech about the importance of the Hermione and his plans to rebuild the Museum to its former glory with a program of visiting foreign historical ships. Gale Brewer spoke about the importance of recognizing the history of Lower Manhattan and the importance of the French efforts.
The march which went up Wall Street and turned at Broadway to Bowling Green. It was led by Miles Young, an American crew member of the Hermione, along with storyteller Jonathan Kruk and Caroline Kaplan. Marchers various patriotic groups with drummer Brian Carter providing the musical accompaniment (the budget did not allow for a marching band). As the parade went by Federal Hall the Hearts of Oak Band serenaded the marchers en route to Trinity Church (thanks to the National Parks Service).
The 2015 visit of the Hermione has not only been a catalyst for the succeeding July 4th parades, but also for the Lower Manhattan Historical Association. The Association is now an active group which organizes other historical activities in Lower Manhattan such as the annual Saratoga-Yorktown Celebration in Trinity Churchyard; the Alexander Hamilton Immigrant Achievement Awards, the annual Evacuation Day ceremonies at Bowling Green. The Association has also helped mark the first Synagogue in North America on South William Street, and recently commemorated the Buttonwood Agreement, which helped found the New York Stock Exchange.
Arguably, the visit of the Hermione in 2015 also had a profound impact on the South Street Seaport Museum. After much wrangling and controversy, the Howard Hughes Corporation (one of the principal financial supporters of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association’s July 4th parades) sought to build a major office building at 250 Water Street. The company offered to make a donation of $50 million if its zoning application was approved. The directors of the financially beleaguered South Street Seaport Museum had argued that the museum would go out of business without this subsidy.
The proposal created a major controversy in Lower Manhattan. The matter was the subject of five lengthy public hearings in which more than 600 interested people spoke with some commenters waiting more than three hours to make their two minute presentations. A number of business groups along with directors of the Lower Manhattan Historical Society (including Aleen Millman, Catherine Hughes and Scott Dwyer), along with the director of the Fraunces Tavern Museum, argued that the long-term interest of the community lay with preservation and expansion of the Museum.
Notable New York historian Kenneth Jackson, a former president of the New York Historical Society, argued that the future of Manhattan was dependent on its ability to compete with other major cities of the country and world for tourist dollars and that the South Street Seaport Museum could be critical.
Ultimately with the support of city council member Margaret Chin, then Borough President Gale Brewer (who had both been Grand Marshals of the 4th of July parades), the New York City Council supported the Howard Hughes project. The 2021 and 2022 Lower Manhattan Historical Society’s July 4th parades ended at the South Street Seaport piers and were viewed by some as a Seaport Museum victory celebration.
Hoping For Hermione’s Return in 2024
At a recent meeting of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, the organization was asked if it would help plan a celebration to mark the 200th anniversary of Lafayette’s triumphant return to the United States in 1824. A number of groups, led by the Friends of Lafayette and other French-American organizations are planning a series of events for 2024.
It was suggested that the return of the Hermione to the United States could be a centerpiece of these efforts. A member of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association’s board was asked to look into the costs, although several board members remain skeptical. The Hermione is currently in dry dock in Rochefort where its hull is in poor shape. The estimated cost of renovating the ship for another voyage to the United States is estimated at $3-5 million.
While this amount might seem daunting, it’s not impossible, if one considers the potential benefits and the French and American resources that could be brought to bear. 140 years ago, the Statue of Liberty was considered a hopeless scheme.
A return visit of the Hermione for the 200th anniversary of Lafayette’s 1824 visit could promote historical tourism along the eastern seaboard and further the the history community’s vision of Lower Manhattan as a world class tourist center.
At a time when democracy is sometime in question, it could provide Americans with a timely reminder of the principles on which democratic government was founded.
In terms of fundraising, a joint project with French and American groups each raising $2.5 million using the same methods as those used for the Statue of Liberty – individual contributions, public municipal investment, donations from major corporations should be possible.
The only question is the will of people on both sides of the Atlantic to do so. After all, is not the motto of the Lafayette Coat of Arms—“Why not”?
RCA BUILDING ROCKEFELLER CENTER ANDY SPARBERG, GLORIA HERMAN AND ALEXIS VILLAFANE ALL GOT IT RIGHT
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
NEW YORK ALMANACK JAMES. S. KAPLAN
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Art installations in November start to take on a holiday tint as approach the season of giving. Starting on November 25th, you can send your wishes into the sky or conduct a symphony of color-changing lanterns inside the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place with the interactive public installation Luminaries. Luminaries is a glowing canopy made up of 640 twinkling custom lanterns that change in color and intensity, based on your motions during certain “Maestro” and “Holiday Wishing” sessions noted on the schedule. For every interaction, Brookfield Place will donate $1, up to $25,000, to Outreach, a charity that provides “evidence-based behavioral health services to youth and adults in NYC and on Long Island struggling with substance and alcohol abuse.”
When the installation isn’t in interactive mode it will still be mesmerizing. Throughout the installation’s run, November 25th through January 6th, you can watch special light shows set to your favorite holiday songs, like Winter Wonderland by Michael Bublé, Silver Bells by Tony Bennett, and Carol of the Bells by The Bird and The Bee.
Sarah E. Brook’s The Need You Know It Is A Letting Light. Photo by Sebastian Bach
Located inside the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park is Sarah E. Brook’s multimedia installation The Need You Know It Is A Letting Light, an installation that began in mid-October. Presented by BRIC and the Prospect Park Alliance, The Need You Know It Is A Letting Light conveys the artist’s exploration of the communication between external and internal psychic space through three abstract wooden sculptures and an accompanying mural. Brook’s project marks the first time a sculpture will be presented alongside a mural at the bandshell. Colored red, yellow, and green in the spirit of the park’s natural landscape, the bright mural seeks to allure passersby from within the park into the bandshell.
Arts Brookfield
Canstruction® returns to Brookfield Place for the 30th year! This annual art competition, produced in partnership with City Harvest, challenges teams of architects, engineers, and contractors to build sculptures made entirely out of unopened cans of food. At the end of the installation, the sculptures are deconstructed and the cans are donated to City Harvest, resulting in the largest annual single donation of canned food to the organization.
The sculptures will be judged by an expert panel and winners will be crowned in the categories of Best Original Design, Best Use of Labels, Structural Ingenuity, Best Meal, and two honorable mentions. Visitors are encouraged to get involved by dropping off non-perishable cans of food on the 2nd floor of Brookfield Place (230 Vesey Street). You can also vote for your favorite sculpture to be awarded the People’s Choice award, here. Voting opens on November 3rd. This art installation will be on view for just a few weeks, from November 3rd through November 14th from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m daily.
Breathing Without Fear by Reuben Sinha. Photo by Cynthia Reed.
Many art installations you’ll see this November debuted in late October, including artist Reuben Sinha’s ceramic sculpture Breathing Without Fear in Marcus Garvey Park. In 2004, Sinha founded artHARLEM Inc., a community non-profit organization known for managing the Harlem Open Artist Studio Tour, to bring recognition to Harlem’s underrepresented artists. Throughout his artwork, Sinha draws from his immigrant identity and experiences living within racially marginalized New York City communities.
This emphasis on community can be seen in Breathing Without Fear which depicts two figures becoming one as they enjoy a local park in a post-pandemic world. Taking the structure of ancient rock formations, the sculpture can also be interpreted as two figures enjoying a moment of connection in the aftermath of a prolonged period of separation brought about by the pandemic. While abstract in nature, the sculpture’s figures are meant to represent everybody. Visitors to Marcus Garvey Park can find the sculpture on the oval lawn at Madison Avenue and 121st Street in East Harlem.
San Juan Heal at the Lincoln Center. Photo by Nicholas Knight. Courtesy of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Public Art Fund.
Enlivening the nearly 200-foot-long facade of the Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall is San Juan Heal, a collection of designs that pay homage to the San Juan Hill neighborhood. The working-class neighborhood was home to the largest Black and Puerto Rican populations in New York City during the first half of the twentieth century. San Juan Hill’s residents were forcibly displaced to make way for redevelopment in the area which would eventually become the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
The constellation of words, shapes, and symbols that make up artist Nina Chanel’s piece depicts the former thriving community. Featured in the panels are figures such as the pioneering healthcare workers Edith Carter and Elizabeth Tyler. Other prominent figures placed into the spotlight include musician James P. Johnson, famous for inspiring the Charleston dance craze, and Thelonious Monk, a pioneer of Bebop. Commissioned by the Lincoln Center in collaboration with The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Public Art Fund, San Juan Heal will be on display until March 31, 2024.
Still from An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time. Photo by Nicholas Knight. Courtesy of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Public Art Fund.
Upon walking inside the Karen and Richard LeFrak Lobby at David Geffen Hall, visitors to Lincoln Center are greeted by Jacolby Satterwhite’s commission An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time. Presented on the Hausen Digital Wall, An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time combines archival images, live-action footage, and digital animation connecting a festival of performance that traverses historical periods through virtual space.
Peppered throughout the video are the works of artists throughout the history of the Philharmonic since its founding in 1842. Also featured are young musicians and dancers from across New York City, playing instruments and dancing on stages. Grounded in a more democratic view of the city’s history, An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time features sculptural monuments set behind landscapes inspired by Central Park, surrounded by buildings covered in screens as a reminder of Times Square. An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time will be visible to the public until March 31, 2024.
ANDY SPARBERG, HARA REISER, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, GLORIA HERMAN ALL GOT IT RIGHT,
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Sources
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Cartoonist and social realist painter who studied with Robert Henri and George Bellows. Often compared with Honoré Daumier, Gropper was a satirical cartoonist for the New York Tribune. He contributed to Vanity Fair, as well as to more radical publications such as the Masses and the Liberator, and to two Communist publications—Freiheit and the Daily Worker.
Joan Stahl American Artists in Photographic Portraits from the Peter A. Juley & Son Collection (Washington, D.C. and Mineola, New York: National Museum of American Art and Dover Publications, Inc., 1995)
William Gropper’s parents were Jewish immigrants who worked in the sweatshops of New York City’s garment district. Their dignity in the face of hardship influenced their oldest son, who wrote that “I’m from the old school, defending the underdog.” (Klaidman, “William Gropper, 79, Painter and Radical Cartoonist Dies,” The Washington Post, January 9, 1977). As a teenager Gropper attended an experimental socialist school and took art courses with Robert Henri and George Bellows. Their respect for working people inspired Gropper to express his radical politics in cartoons. After winning several prizes for his drawings he took a job with the New York Tribune, but his bosses discovered his contributions to left-wing magazines and fired him. In 1937, Gropper had his first show and the New Yorker magazine described him as “one of the most accomplished, as well as one of the most significant artists of our generation.” During the “Red scare” of the postwar years, conservatives grew suspicious of his images lambasting the rich and powerful. Gropper was asked to appear before the McCarthy Senate permanent investigations subcommittee, where he took the Fifth Amendment. He was branded a Communist and saw several of his gallery shows cancelled. This experience did nothing to stop the artist from making satirical images about war, prejudice, greed, and exploitation into his late seventies. (Steinberg, intro. to Sorini, William Gropper Etchings, 1998)
William Gropper, Construction of the Dam (study for mural, the Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.), 1938, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1965.18.11A-C
William Gropper proposed this mural for the Department of the Interior building in Washington, D.C. He based the image on visits to the Grand Coulée Dam on the Columbia River and the Davis Dam on the Colorado River. Gropper organized the composition in three parts to accommodate a second-floor lobby wall divided by two marble pilasters. Each scene represents different phases of construction to show the drama, danger, and massive scale of the dam projects overseen by the government.
In the central panel a worker stands inside a section of conduit suspended above the canyon. He signals for his coworkers to direct the crane over the dam. Gropper emphasized the unity of workers who clearly rely on one another to get the job done. The men protect each other from injury as they shape the American landscape, invigorate the nation’s economy, and provide electrification across the country. The stylized clouds and jagged mountains reflect the artist’s effort to make the scene easily readable from a distance. In the finished mural, Gropper made subtle changes to his proposal, including a red handkerchief hanging from the back pocket of one of the workers. Gropper was a Communist, and this subtle statement of his sympathies was a subversive act for an artist whose government-commissioned work was supposed to reach broad audiences. The change generated no objections, and after Gropper installed the mural a Washington Post critic commended him, writing that his “design has unity and is appropriate in scale and color to the space for which it was planned.” (Graeme, “Gropper Mural Graces Interior Building,” The Washington Post, March 19, 1939)
William Gropper, Suburban Post in Winter (mural study, Freeport New York Post Office), ca. 1936-1937, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the General Services Administration, 1974.28.369
A LANDMARK, PRESERVED WITH 70 STORY BUILDING TOWERING OVER IT.
GLORIA HERMAN GOT IT RIGHT
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
Michelle is the founder of Untapped New York. She is the author of Secret Brooklyn: An Unusual Guide,New York: Hidden Bars & Restaurants, and Broadway. She is a graduate of Harvard College in the History of Art and Architecture and holds a master’s degree in urban planning from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is an Adjunct Professor of Architecture. Official Website
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Repurposed buildings are the story of New York City real estate. New businesses moving into and taking over the space of a defunct company is nothing unusual.
But sometimes it can be startling—especially when the old company was housed in a fortress-like brick and limestone building resembling a Greek temple and as tall as a tenement, and the new business is a CVS.
That’s the case with a former bank branch on Amsterdam Avenue and 96th Street. Opened in 1927 as the East River Savings Bank and enlarged in 1932, the building is the kind of imposing edifice popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries with financial institutions that banks don’t construct anymore.
Neo-Classical in style with columns facing the street on two sides, the sober, solid building was meant to convey that your money and valuable were safe. In an era with fewer financial regulations and more bank failures, this must have been quite reassuring to potential customers.
The inscriptions above the bank’s entrance were meant to reassure customers as well. “Quotations from Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln celebrating the virtues of saving decorate the bank’s principal facade, while Theodore Roosevelt’s words graced the West 96th Street facade,” notes the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s report.
The exterior of the bank has had landmark status since 1998, not long after the East River Savings Bank and a subsequent bank closed their doors, leaving the building empty.
The interior, however, is a different story. Off to the sides of the store shelves are some remnants of the former bank—perhaps very decorative entrances, or maybe areas where customers queued up for bank tellers.
A row of vintage wood phone booths (minus the phones, unfortunately) with those iconic folding doors are hidden behind an umbrella rack and halloween candy.
A bank clock with Roman numerals is set inside a lovely iron railing above the ice cream section, under florescent lighting and security cameras.
The CVS moved into the former bank building at least a decade ago, so it’s odd that they never bothered in all that time to renovate the interior. I’m not complaining; it’s a treat to see these remains of early 20th century New York City.
This isn’t the only old bank building repurposed for a drugstore chain. Downtown on Spring and Lafayette Streets, Duane Reade colonized another stunning old-school bank…also once home to an East River Savings Bank branch.
CLARA BELLA AND GLORIA HERMAN KNOW A ROOSEVELT ISLAND PUP WHO WAS ON HER WAY TO VOTE
FROM A READER:
Terrific diary! I’ve sailed many summers on the Clearwater, a two-thirds size, gaff-rigged Hudson River sloop built in the 60s by the Clearwater Society, founded by Pete Seeger, to address (successfully) the pollution of the river that ended a thriving fishing industry. In these many years I have yet to encounter any inebriated ministers, Scotch Presyterian or otherwise, on-board. M. Katz
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Sources
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
The following travelogue, taken from “Visit to the Falls of Niagara in 1800,” was originally published in London in 1826 by John Maude. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer researcher George A. Thompson and additionally edited and annotated by John Warren.
New York, Saturday, June 21st, 1800
5½ p. m. Embarked on board the Sloop Sally, Captain Peter Donnelly, seventy tons, four hands, viz. the Captain, his brother Andrew, John, who was on board Admiral De Winter’s Ship on the memorable 11th October, 1797, and Nicholas, a free black acting as steward, cook, cabin-boy, &c. had purchased his own freedom and that of his wife, hoping soon to effect that of his children; performs well on the violin, and is very smart. Twenty-four passengers, not births for more than half. Passage two dollars each. Board and liquors, as may happen. Principal passengers, General Alleser, of New York, violent democrat; Caul, of Saratoga, ditto; Mr. Mousley, warm aristocrat and federalist; Mr. Putnam, Mr. Williams, Lieutenant Kipp, all three federalists; the youth Octavius, son of Timothy Pickering, Esq. late Secretary of State, under the care of Messrs. Williams and Putnam, both relations of Mr. Pickering; Jonas, of Montreal, Grocer; —— of Michillinnackinac; a drunken, Scotch Presbyterian Minister; Mr. Sanger, &c. &c.; four rafts-men, and a man and his wife from Staten Island.
7 p. m. Unmoored; fine S. E. breeze; ten knots.
8 p. m. Breeze slackened.
Midnight; cast anchor twenty-five miles from New York, entrance of Tappan Bay, not wind to stem the ebb. In the night, severe storm of thunder, lightning and rain. Not finding a birth unoccupied, or scarcely one that did not contain two persons, the Captain gave me his own state room.
Sunday, June 22d.
5 a. m. Turned out, got under weigh: Tappan Bay, or Sea, five miles wide and ten long; extremities marked by two remarkable high bluffs; scarcely a breath of air; fog on the high banks of the bay; heavy rain; fell calm when opposite to Tarry-Town.
10 a. m. Sun broke out and light airs from the north; beat slowly through the Tappan to Haverstraw-Bay, six miles side, ten long. Stakes in the river for the convenience of taking Shad. Sturgeons constantly leaping out of the water. Shewn the field from whence the three youths first descried Major [John] André [conspirator with Benedict Arnold]: and the large white-wood tree under which he was examined.
2 p. m. Cast anchor; took boat and landed at the ferry-house opposite to Mount Pleasant, thirty-six miles from New York; river here four miles wide. Climbed the mountains to visit a lake on the opposite side; large, considerably above the level of the Hudson; pike, yellow bass, and sun-fish. Strawberries on its banks. Much chat with Betsy, who, born at the foot of the mountain and apparently secluded from the world, said she had been a great traveler, “once to the meeting and twice to the mill.”
7 p. m, Got under weigh; light airs from the north; progress trifling. Came to an anchor in the Horse-race, foot of St. Anthony’s Nose; river half a mile wide, channel from forty to fifty fathoms wide three miles above Peekskill, and forty-eight from New York; turned in at 11 p.m.
Monday, June 23d.
Turned out at 4 a. m. Sketched a view of Fort Clinton, Fort Montgomery, St. Anthony’s Nose, the Bear Mountain and surrounding scenery; highly romantic and beautiful, being the entrance of the Highlands; to the south very extensive and pleasing prospect down through Haverstraw to Tappan Bay; dense fog on the lower part of Fort Clinton, Fort Montgomery and St. Anthony’s; the site of Fort Clinton is now occupied by the handsome dwelling-house of Mr. Ducet [Doucet], a french gentleman; dreary situation and without society.
5 a. m. Took boat and landed on a small Island; filled a cask with excellent water, picked up some drift wood, and got a pitcher of milk for breakfast.
8 a. m. Returned and explored the Island; strange serpentine form; rocks and marsh; much scrub wood; four kinds of huckleberries, the swamp huckleberry, a tall shrub like the alder, an excellent fruit just beginning to ripen; the other still green; could only gather a few strawberries, the season being past. Laurel and Prickly Pear in blossom; the flower of the first, white with red spots, shaped like the convolvulus [Morning Glory]; that of the Prickly Pear, yellow and in appearance like the bloom of the melon and cucumber. Gathered the root of Sarsaparilla and a branch of Spice wood, this latter is a great sweetener of the blood and a pleasant flavor; flushed a pair of partridges or pheasants; though these birds more resemble Grouse than Partridge of Pheasant, I may here observe that the animals of America differ materially from those of the Old Continent, yet for want of more appropriate designations, they frequently receive the names of such European animals as they most resemble; but these names are by no means settled; for instance, what are known as Partridges in one part of the Country are called Quails in another, and these birds will alight in Trees, or on Paling [a fence]. The Hares have white flesh. I have been informed that some Sporting Gentlemen have imported the English Red Fox as affording better diversion that the native Grey; and that although the Red Fox is the smaller animal it is the more ferocious, and is eating-out the Grey one.
9 a. m. Got under weigh; head wind.
1 p. m. L—— Mills, are superior to most in construction and situation, and very profitable; four pair of stones; fifty-five miles from New York; the Miller takes down a cargo of flour and returns with wheat.
3 p. m. Landed at West Point, the Gibraltar of America; centre of the Highlands; fifty-eight miles from New York.
9 p. m. Got under weigh; having no wind, drifted with the tide, boat a-head towing.
10½ p. m. Light southerly breeze; turned the Scotch Presbyterian Minister out of the cabin and put him into the hold. This man had given himself up to dram-drinking, which kept him in a continual state of intoxication, so that he never left his birth but for a few moments; his legs had running sores, which, being neglected, were offensive to such a degree, that the passengers had determined to pass the night on deck, unless he were put below.
11 p. m. Passed Butter-Hill, and the Face Mountain, the last of the [Hudson] Highlands.
11½ p. m. Turned in; the cabin being by this time tolerably ventilated.
Tuesday, June 24th.
4 a. m. Turned out opposite Barnegat [Dutchess County] and its lime-kilns, twenty miles from West Point, and seventy-eight from New York; Light southerly breeze, two knots.
6 a. m. Fell calm; went on shore and got a supply of milk and eggs; could not procure bread.
7 a. m. Light southerly air; got under weigh; hot sun.
8 a. m. Fine favorable breeze.
8½ a. m. Poughkeepsie seventy-nine miles, high wooded banks each side of the river; came up with and passed four sloops.
Esopus Island ninety-five miles from New York. Esopus Flats one hundred miles; these flats, or shoals, throw the channel of the river on the opposite shore, where it forms a large bay; fine view here of the Katskill Mountains. ***
2 p. m. Redhook one hundred miles from New York, beautiful situation; opposite to the Katskill Mountains; two Islands decorate the (p. 15) river. We were now carried along at the rate of ten miles and hour, having scarcely time to examine the beauty of the country, through which we were so rapidly passing.
3 p. m. The city of Hudson,* one hundred and thirty miles; opposite to Hudson is Lunenberg, or Algiers; this latter name was given to it in consequence of the piratical practices of its inhabitants. Above Hudson is a wind-mill; I do not know that there are four in the United States. There are two near Newport.
Hudson City. In the Autumn of 1783, Messrs. S. & T. Jenkins, from Providence, Rhode Island, fixed on the unsettled spot, where this City stands, for a town, to which the River is navigable for vessels of any size. In the Spring of 1786, one hundred and fifty Dwelling-Houses, besides Shops, Barns, Four Warehouses, several Wharfs, [A Whale] Spermaceti Works, a covered Rope-Walk, and one of the best Distilleries in America, were erected; its inhabitants are at this time 1,500. Its increase since has been very rapid. Supplied by pipes with water from a spring two miles from the City. In February, 1786, upwards of 1,200 Sleighs entered the City daily, for several days together.
4½ p. m. Kinderhook [Columbia County] one hundred and forty miles; twenty houses; Mr. M’c Machin’s is the principal one; fine view; Islands numerous in this part of the river. Heavy thundering; took in sail: cast anchor.
5½ p. m. Got under weigh, in doing which, fished up an excellent and large anchor, a valuable prize for the Captain. The gust, as expected, killed the wind; in summer I never knew an instance to the contrary. Had the gust kept off, we should have been in Albany by seven o’clock.
9 p. m. The wind having entirely failed us, took the Sloop in tow, and at 7 p. m had her moored alongside a Wharf in [New] Baltimore [Greene County], one hundred and forty-five miles. Went on shore; took with us Nicholas and his violin, the fiddle soon got the girls together; we kicked up a dance and kept it up till midnight. Treated with spruce-beer and gingerbread. [New] Baltimore is a shabby place, every other house a tavern; in number about a dozen.
Wednesday, June 25th.
3 a. m. Not a breath of air; took Sloop in tow; not possible to see from stem to stern, yet passed a dangerous and difficult passage and a bar, which require, it is said, your having all your eyes about you.
6 a. m. Made land; the fog beginning to disperse; put the Presbyterian Minister on shore; he is engaged by a Mr. Nichols as a tutor to his children! Boat returned with milk for breakfast.
7½ a. m. Dropped anchor; took Boat and landed on High-hill Island, four miles in length; two farms; got a few sour cherries; one hundred and fifty-four miles from New York. Crossed to the opposite or west shore, and landed at a farm house called Bethlehem, six miles from Albany; numerous and handsome family.
9 a. m. Having hired a wagon, seven of our passengers took their departure. The day being remarkably sultry, I determined to stay by the Sloop. Returned on board with potatoes and salad.
Albany: settled in 1760 [sic]; forty-five Sloops (Vessels) in Albany and forty-five in New York, &c., — total ninety in the Albany trade, a bout seventy tons each — ten voyages (twenty trips) per annum on an average; navigated by a Captain at twenty dollars per month; a Pilot at fifteen dollars; a Seaman and a Cook at nine dollars — total four hands. Freight twelve cents and a half per cwt., gain one hundred dollars per voyage or one thousand dollars per annum. Passage, one dollar and twenty-five cents, average eight passengers, ten dollars a trip or two hundred dollars per annum.
Sloop Building at Albany twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents per ton, if green wood last only ten years, seasoned wood would last thirty. Four thousand White Inhabitants, and two thousand Black Slaves. Revenue, 35,000. Corporation [the City of Albany] sell the Quays [Wharf] at two dollars and fifty cents per foot of Frontage and an annual rent of eight dollars and twelve and a half cents. Lands near the Town from sixty-three to seventy-five dollars per acres. Labor, fifty-six and a half cents per day; in harvest, eight-seven and a half cents. Butcher’s Meat ten to twelve and a half cents per lb. [According to] Le Duc de Liancourt in 1795.
Noon. Got under weigh; light south air.
2 pm . Passed safely the Overslough. [The overslaugh was a notorious shallow area in the Hudson River about three miles south of Albany.]
2 pm. Albany, one hundred and sixty miles from New York. Took up my quarters at Lewis’s Tavern [on State Street, later the location of Albany Savings Bank]. Paid the Captain two dollars for passage money, and four dollars and fifty cents, for board and liquors; the same sum of six dollars and fifty cents was charged for my servant, though neither his bed or board were so good as mine. Our passage of four days may be considered a long one, at this season of the year, yet it was a pleasant one and no way tedious. The Hudson is one of the finest Rivers in America, and superior to them all in romantic and sublime scenery, more especially in its progress through the Highlands, a distance of sixteen miles.
Albany contained, in 1797, one thousand two hundred and sixty-three buildings, of which, eight hundred and sixty-three were dwelling-houses; and six thousand and twenty-one inhabitants.
The improvements in this City [of Albany], within five or six years, have been very great in almost all respects. Wharves built, Streets paves, Bank instituted. . . . now excellent water, (an article in which this City has hitherto been extremely deficient, having been obliged to use the dirty water of the river, is about to be conducted into the various parts of the City, from a fine spring five miles from the west of the City. Albany is unrivaled for situation, being nearly at the head of Sloop Navigation, on one of the noblest Rivers in the World. It enjoys a salubrious air, and is the natural emporium of the increasing trade of a large extent of Country, West and North. A Country of excellent soil, abounding in every article for the West India Market.
One mile North of this City [of Albany], near the Manor-House of Lieutenant Governor Van Rensselaer [Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, 1738-1810], are very ingeniously constructed extensive and useful Works for the manufacture of Scotch and Rappee Snuffs, Roll and Cut Tobacco of different Kinds, Chocolate, Mustard, Starch, Hair-Powder, Split Peas and Hulled Barley. The whole of the Machinery is worked by water. For the invention of this Machinery, the proprietor has obtained a patent.
What further added to the pleasantness of this trip, were our frequent expeditions on shore. We landed seven times, and each time employed two or three hours in exploring the country. We saw, too, the whole of the River; as we progressed but very few miles during the time we occupied our births. We usually retired at eleven, and rose at four or five o’clock. The shortest passage ever made on this River was by this same Sloop and Captain; he made it in sixteen hours and six minutes, from which should be deducted one hour for time occupied in landing passengers by the way. The passage often takes a fortnight to perform it, and sometimes twenty-five or thirty days. The passage is always shortest, the winds being equally favorable, up the river, as you carry the flood with you; in the other case you out-run the ebb. Captain Donnelly has taken 1,675 Dollars passage money in one year.
Thursday, June 26th
Evening. Visit Snuff Manufactory, Stadt-house [probably either the Schuyler House at the corner of State and Pearl Streets, or the city’s second Stadt Huys, site of the Albany Pan of Union] and a fine spring of water about a quarter of a mile out of town.
Illustration: “The Hudson at Tappan Zee” by Francis Silva 1876 showing a sloop, but actually depicting Esopus Meadows.
PIECES OF OLD TRAM HANGERS AFTER THEY WERE REPLACED IN 2010.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
NEW YORK ALMANACK
Illustration: “The Hudson at Tappan Zee” by Francis Silva 1876 showing a sloop, but actually depicting Esopus Meadows.
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
SOUTH END OF ISLAND IN THE 1990’s. GOLDWATER HOSPITAL WAS STILL THERE AND THE FDR FFP WAS NOT YET BUILT. ED LITCHER, ALEXIS VILLAFANE AND GLORIA HERMAN KNOW THEIR ISLAND.
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
SOURCES
Walter Barrett, The Old Merchants of New York City, Second Series 1883
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE JULIE MENIN DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD, ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS
THIS IS AN UPDATE TO THE STORY WE PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25TH.
8/4/11. Carroll St. Bridge Renovation. The Carroll Street bridge over the Gowanus canal is going to be closed starting Tues. Aug. 9. File photo by Tom Callan
The EPA started dredging “Black Mayonnaise” from the bottom of the canal in 2020. An attempt to stabilize the Carroll Street Bridge ended up damaging the span’s delicate supports, which are now in need of repair before the bridge can reopen.File photo by Kevin Duggan
The Carroll Street Bridge will likely remain closed long past the currently-projected March 31 cutoff as federal and city agencies work to assess and address structural issues on the span.
Christos Tsiamis, the project manager of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund site, said at a Jan. 25 meeting of the Gowanus Community Advisory Group that testing and repairs could take a year or longer, depending on how much damage is discovered in the structural supports of the 133-year-old bridge.
After a few months of pile driving, though, engineers realized the work was damaging the structure, and the EPA decided to reassess their plans for supporting the structure and cleaning up the 10 feet of infamous “Black Mayonnaise” beneath the Carroll Street Bridge and the Union Street bridges, Tsiamis said at a September meeting of the CAG.
Rather than scooping the sludge from the floor of the canal, the agency is planning to inject cement into it to solidify and prevent it from spreading or leeching toxic waste into the canal, a process known as In-Situ Stabilization. The cement will also stabilize the bridge.
“One of the things we’ve learned is that the substructure of the bridge is in worse condition than anyone understood,” said Brian Carr, assistant regional counsel at the EPA, at the January meeting. “There were repairs that were going to be needed one way or the other, and driving the piles in and all, if the bridge had been in decent condition, would have provided future stability for the bridge.”
Because of the unforeseen delicacy of the Progressive Era bridge, the pile-driving sped up the need for serious repairs. Because of the damage the construction caused, the city’s Department of Transportation and contractors working with the “potentially responsible parties” who are helping to fund the cleanup had to determine if the bridge was safe to hold pedestrians and cars again.
A simulation they performed revealed that the Carroll Street Bridge was in no way ready to reopen to traffic.
“So, what has to be done right now is there has to be a real-life assessment of the loads that the bridge can support,” Tsiamis said. “That is being done by what is called a load test.”
Over two to three months, engineers will test incrementally heavier loads on the bridge to see how it reacts to the additional weight. It remains to be seen what the results of those months of experiments will be, but if the needed repairs are superficial, Tsiamis said, he would expect them to take about six months post-testing. If the foundational supports need serious upgrades, the work is likely to take at least a year.
So far, all of the issues with the bridge are part of the lower, structural parts of the bridge, not the upper superstructure, and are not interfering with the mechanism that opens and closes the deck — so the city’s Landmarks Preservation Committee is not heavily involved with testing or repairs.
The Carroll Street Bridge is one of the oldest retractable bridges in the US, and was landmarked in 1987. Recent years have not been kind to the centenarian, which took a beating during Superstorm Sandy and received funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for repairs in 2013.
Local photographer Miska Draskoczy took glass-plate photos of historic Gowanus infrastructure, including the Carroll Street Bridge. Neighbors and preservationists worry about the future of the bridge as the EPA and city agencies assess new damage and plan repairs. Miska Draskoczy
CAG member Bev Watkins asked if the upcoming construction boon would be taken into consideration as repairs are done on the bridge — with the recent passage of the Gowanus rezoning, dozens of new buildings are expected to rise in coming years, and she worried that the vibrations of nearby pile-driving could undo new repairs.
“When you construct your house, you’re not thinking what features your neighbor is going to put,” Tsiamis said. “If [developers] go to do construction on land, they will need to take into account what is in their vicinity.”
DOT and other agencies would have to continue to monitor the bridges, he continued. Additionally, Carr said, the pile driving only caused damage when it was happening directly at the site of the bridge — it had been fine to put piles in even up to the very edge of the foundations.
Marlene Donnelly, another member, raised the issue of developers planning their construction without taking the historic structure into account, doubting that the effects of future development would really be kept track of by the city.
But that, Carr said, is beyond what the EPA can control — he recommended concerned bridge buffs take it up at Community Board 6 or with their local city councilmember.
#BELL SYSTEM MANHOLE COVER LOCATED JUST SOUTH OF BLACKWELL HOUSE ON THE EAST SIDE OF MAIN STREET SUMIT KAUR AND ED LITCHER GOT IT RIGHT
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
